


Not the Last of Her Kind

by Scotty1609



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Adopted Pidge | Katie Holt, Altean Pidge | Katie Holt, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Domestic, Family Dynamics, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Fluff, Holt Family, Hurt/Comfort, Illnesses, Puberty, Shapeshifting, Sickness, Space Acne, Space Dad Shiro, Space Mom Allura, Space Uncle Coran - Freeform, Space family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-31
Updated: 2017-01-31
Packaged: 2018-09-21 01:53:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,494
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9526619
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scotty1609/pseuds/Scotty1609
Summary: AU where a newborn Altean Pidge crash-lands to Earth and is adopted by the Holt family. Upon entering Earth and joining Voltron, she comes to discover this hidden side of herself with the help of Princess Allura, Coran, and her fellow paladins...A.K.A.- an excuse for Space Family





	

**Author's Note:**

> This is an AU inspired by the amazing 'Jakehercydraws'. Check out his Altean!Pidge art at: http://jakehercydraws.tumblr.com/
> 
> **Please note that this is not DIRECTLY based on jakehercy's AU, but is INSPIRED by his drafted idea of Altean!Pidge. Instead of all of the Holts being Altean in this fic, newborn Altean!Pidge pulls a Superman (TM) and crash-lands on Earth. But I still want to thank jakehercy for the beautiful inspiration!!
> 
> *** Also, I don't mention it in the fic, but my headcanon on baby Alteans is that they have a sort of chameleon-effect defense mechanism? Alteans are shapeshifters, and baby/children Alteans shapeshift to match the surrounding species. (Most of the time they don't have to do this because most of the time they live with other Alteans). Or at least that's my headcanon... Also, pre-pubescent Alteans can't control their shapeshifting, another headcanon of mine.

Babies were truly underestimated, Samuel Holt believed. They were highly intelligent creatures, with a thirst to learn from the moment of birth. Constantly, their little features- button noses, big eyes, tiny ears and grabby hands- took in all sorts of stimuli, attempting to teach themselves about their world. It was no wonder they cried so much- the stimulation must be overwhelming.

The point was, babies- even babies that crash-landed to Earth in cryogenic freezing pods- were fast learners. Samuel and Colleen Holt understood this to a higher degree than other parents.

Matt was eight when the pod crashed into the outskirts of desert plains behind their house. He had been sitting on the back porch fiddling with a broken radio, Gunther curled up around his feet. It was Gunther who alerted Matt to the unidentified object that was careening towards their house, the dog's maddening barks coming to a halt when the pod impacted hard with the ground. Shock waves shook the Earth, making the radio pieces around Matt shake. The quake had Samuel and Colleen Holt charging into the backyard to check on their son, who was now standing and jumping up and down with glee.

“Dad, _look_!” Matt pointed to the object, and Samuel, ever the scientist, began heading over towards it. His wife held Matt back, the boy just as eager- if not more so- as his father so see what sort of alien object had landed in the unassuming rural outskirts of New Mexico.

The pod was far out enough that Samuel's figure just became a blur, and about five minutes later, he was making his way back towards them with a blue bundle in his arms. “Colleen-” the man stammered, going to his wife. The professor gently pushed aside a corner of the blanket to peer down into her husband's arm. With a gasp, her head snapped back up to stare at Samuel in disbelief.

“What is it? What is it? Is it an alien? Ohmygosh, Dad is it an _alien_?!” Matt was jumping in the air as he tried to get a good look at the bundle in Samuel's arms. Slowly, Samuel crouched to one knee and allowed his son to look at the precious cargo he held.

It was a baby. Red-faced and screeching, the child had long, pointed ears and a tuft of white hair on its head. Little green markings rested beneath its eyes, and Matt reached out to gently brush his fingers across them. “ _Woah_.”

Samuel and Colleen disappeared into the study after that, baby in tow. Matt sat on the couch, brainstorming theories about the infant- who he was mentally referring to as _Baby-El_ \- and was still sitting there when his parents emerged. They spoke in gentle tones to Matt, saying that the child would be in danger if anyone found out about its existence. He couldn't tell anyone about how they found it- _her_ \- and they would be keeping her.

“Can I name her?!” Matt was jumping up and down again. “Can we name her Pidgeot? Please, please, please, please-”

Colleen threw her head back in laughter and told her son, _no_ , they were not naming the baby after his card game. Samuel went out to hide the pod beneath the floor boards of the tool shed, leaving his wife and son to brainstorm names for their new family member.

It became evident over the next few weeks just how quickly their baby- _Kaitlin_ , an Irish name after Matt's strong-willed grandmother- was learning. Matt had been an inquisitive infant, but Katie was even more so. When she became mobile, they had to double baby-proof the entire house. And when she was about six months old, Colleen and Samuel noticed the physiological changes she was going through.

Observing her parents and brother, Katie had started slowly _shifting_ over the following weeks. First, her skin turned lighter and grew freckles, like Matt. The green markings disappeared from her cheeks, and her startling white hair faded into a deep honey-color, similar to Colleen's. The final thing to go was her pointed ears, the flesh rounding out to look distinctly human. She had observed them, created a theory, and executed an experiment- all at only six months of age.

Samuel and Colleen couldn't be prouder.

They hid Katie's origin from her. She was only a child after all, and it was a wonder that Matt had managed to keep her birth story under wraps for so long. They didn't need to worry about holding another child to secrecy. So, Katie grew up human. In the eyes of everyone, she was nothing more than a typical human child. Samuel and Colleen argued over when they should tell her she was (more or less) adopted, even argued about _if_ they should tell her. After all, no alien life forms had ever been discovered on Earth. In the years Samuel had been working at the Garrison, the closest they came to finding any life forms was bacterium on a distant moon. Samuel knew just how much the Garrison- and Iverson- were dying to get their hands on an alien sample. But it wasn't right in the man's eyes, and his wife readily agreed. They refused to allow their precious daughter to be degraded to a _science project_.

So Katie's birth remained a mystery.

When she turned eight, she started asking why she didn't have any baby pictures. Colleen whipped up a story about their old house having burnt down in a fire, the only hard copies of the 'hospital' where Katie was 'born' being lost to the flames. But young as she was, Katie was one of the most intelligent children the Holts had ever come across (Samuel wondered if her brains had any sort of biological or genetic component, but he would _never_ conduct experiments on his child to find out). And Katie never stopped asking.

Until Kerberos. Until Matt and Samuel were presumed dead, along with their pilot.

Katie didn't believe it. She _wouldn't_ believe it.

So, leaving a note to her grieving mother, Katie cut her long hair, donned her brother's glasses, and headed off towards the Garrison for some answers. Colleen tried to get Katie to come home, begged the girl even. But Katie- _Pidge_ , after the nick-name Matt had given her in infancy- firmly refused. Colleen was fighting a losing battle. So, the woman gave in and told Katie she could stay, on the condition that the girl check in once a week with any news she found.

Katie dared not write or talk over the phone to her mother about her findings- tapped wires could be eavesdropped over and paper letters could be confiscated- so the two came up with code words to inform each other of their findings. Katie only referred to herself as 'Pidge' during their conversations (via a set of toy walkie talkies that the women had upgraded to intercept each others' signals from miles away), and Colleen eventually gave in again and slipped into the habit of using the nick-name.

And then Pidge made the mistake and befriending Lance and Hunk, followed them out into the desert and met Keith and Shiro, was dragged into space by a blue robot lion, and ended up finding a ten-thousand year old alien princess and her right-hand man.

But the truth had finally come out. _Pilot failure, my ass_. Shiro was the most capable pilot she had ever met, and his tale about being trapped by the Galra sent shivers down Pidge's spine. Her father and brother were prisoners of a ten-thousand year war, being held as soldiers or slaves or _entertainment_. She didn't know which one was worse.

The team became her new family ('Space Family', as Lance fondly called them). She trained with them, argued with them, ate space goo with them and looked for her father and brother with them. Months and months passed, until a year went by and Pidge realized with a shock that she was now fifteen. She hadn't left her room that entire day, crying into her pillow with the picture of Matt and herself clutched tightly in her hands.

 

…

 

Pidge woke up the next day feeling _horrible_. Her lower back was aching, her head was throbbing, and she felt feverish. With a groan, the girl smacked away Rover 2.0 as the bot tried to nuzzle against her to wake her up. Looking at the bot, Pidge asked for the time, and Rover shoved her a hologram that, in Altean time, told her she had missed morning training _and_ breakfast.

Shiro was _not_ going to be happy.

So, dragging herself out of bed, Pidge forwent taking a shower in favor of running her fingers through her matted bangs and tossing on her hoodie and a pair of socks. She slunk through the hallways into the kitchen, where Rover told her they were all still gathered. With a heavy groan, the girl swung around the wide doorway and saw everyone sitting around empty plates. Shiro was talking to Coran about their need to gather supplies- they were running low on water packets and food other than goo- while Keith and Lance were arguing about _something_. Allura was deadpanning at the two, her arms crossed as she wondered whether or not she should intervene. Hunk was trying to deflate the tension with humor, failing miserably at it. And there, next to the yellow paladin, sat a plate full of food goo and chopped-up pink fruit. It was obviously for her, but the mice were nibbling at it in her absence. Pidge couldn't bring herself to care, the rising nausea in her stomach making her turn her nose up at the smell of _any_ kind of food.

“Morning,” she murmured, gathering the attention of Hunk.

“Hey, Pi- _WHAT._ ”

Hunk's alarmed voice caused everyone to turn their heads to Pidge. Their faces all contorted into various states of emotion- Shiro and Keith looked utterly shocked, and Lance was flailing to pick his chin up off the floor. Hunk's eyes were wide, disbelieving, and Allura was gaping at her. Coran looked close to tears.

“Um... is there something on my face?”

“P-Pidge,” Allura stammered as she stood, approaching the green paladin as if she were a frightened animal. Allura looked much more frightened than Pidge, though. “You- your ears- and your h- _hair_ -”

“What?” Pidge snapped, growing irritated. Concern gnawed at her stomach, but she pushed it aside. “What's wrong with my ears?”

“Have you even _looked_ in a mirror?!” Lance was suddenly squeaking and waving his arms in the air. “Pidge, you've got _elf ears_!”

“What?” Pidge's hand rose up to her ears, and sure enough, she felt the elongated tissue reaching far out from her head. Face paling, the girl darted forward and grabbed a shiny silver plate from in front of Hunk- who looked about ready to faint from shock- and peered into it.

Her _ears_. She _did_ have elf-ears. And her hair... was _white_. A startling shade of white reminiscent of snow. There were small markings on her cheeks, their shape the same as Allura's and Coran's, although they took on a green shade rather than pink or blue.

Pidge shrieked, and the plate clattered to the floor. She stumbled backwards, hand going to still her rapidly beating heart. “What- what the _quiznak_?!” she screamed, hands clawing at the marks on her cheeks and tugging on her elongated ears. Allura was quick to tug at the girl's wrists to keep Pidge from hurting herself. “What's going on?! Why am I- why do I look like _you_? Did I- did I get drugged or something in our last fight? Some kind of magic spell or- or a hex or something-” Pidge's breath was coming in quick, light puffs. Her head was foggy, and the nausea in her gut was fiercely rising into her throat.

And then Shiro was there- wonderful, blessed Shiro- and was holding her hands, sitting her down in an empty chair and pressing her head between her knees. “Breathe, Pidge, just breathe. In and out, in and out.”

Allura and Coran were speaking in hushed tones. Lance sounded frantic, waving his hands and chirping in Spanish while Hunk tried to calm the blue paladin. This was working rather poorly seeing as how Hunk himself was panicking as well. Keith was deathly silent, not having moved since Pidge entered the room.

“ _Enough_!” Shiro snapped, silencing the others. “This isn't helping.”

“R-Right,” Allura stammered in a daze. “Let's get Pidge to the medical bay- run some tests.”

And then Pidge was being lifted, Shiro supporting her shoulder and Lance wrapping an arm around her waist. It was a bit of overkill, them dragging her to the medical bay, but her knees felt like jelly and her head was even worse, so she allowed the coddling for the time being.

Her senses were slowly coming back to her as Coran took her temperature, checked her inner ears, and shined a light in her eyes. She flinched when he pricked her finger for a blood sample, and Hunk rubbed her back comfortingly. Allura was standing there, staring at her, and Pidge shifted under the gaze. If Allura sensed her unease, the princess didn't make any motion to soothe it. She was too lost in her own thoughts.

After a few moments of horrible silence, Coran turned to them all with a data pad. His face was pale, but his eyes held some sort of mix of emotions- concern, relief, _joy_ \- as he cleared his throat. “Well, the blood results are in...”

“ _And_?” Pidge croaked.

“...One hundred percent Altean.”

Pidge passed out.

 

…

 

When she awoke, it was to the sight of six faces pressed together over her. With a groan, Pidge sat up and pushed her teammates away. “I had the _weirdest_ dream, guys-” she began, raising a hand to the back of her head-

And her fingers brushed by long, pointed ears on the way.

Everything came crushing back down, and Pidge found it hard to breathe once more. Two hands held her own- one soft and smooth, the other large and calloused- as a woman's voice crooned to her. The panic subsided- _slowly_ , but it still subsided- and then Pidge was face-to-face with Allura.

“A-Allura,” the green paladin rasped out, tears coming to her eyes. “What- what's _happening_?”

Allura herself was in tears as she embraced the girl, stroking Pidge's hair as both of their bodies shook. “You are _home_ , my child,” Allura whispered to her. “You are here, where you belong-”

“No!” Pidge exclaimed, shocking the princess. “My- my home is Earth, my family is _human_. I- I'm _not_ -” But then the puzzle pieces all clicked. The facts hit her like a trainwreck, and she began to speak in strangled sentences. “Oh God, oh God, I- I don't have any baby pictures. My parents- they said there was a house fire, but- I could tell they were hiding something. And- and my brother, he- he's a horrible liar, I _knew_ something was wrong with me-”

“There is _nothing_ wrong with you,” Allura snapped, grabbing Pidge's arms. “Pidge, you are one of _us_ , an Altean-”

“I- I'm-” Memories came to her unbidden. When she was three, she had lifted the edge of a car before it could crush her brother. When she was five, she talked to the stars and swore she heard whispers bouncing back at her. When she was eight, she had gone to her mother with questions the woman couldn't or wouldn't answer (“Why don't I get sick like Matt? Why do my bruises go away so fast? Mommy, why doesn't Daddy talk about when I was born? Why don't _you_ talk about when I was born? Why am I not allowed to go into the shed? Mommy, why-”)

“Why?” Pidge's voice was crushed, her chin dropping to her chest. “Why didn't they tell me? I _knew_ something was up. They're all horrible liars-” A strangled laugh left her lips, and Pidge looked up at her teammates with fear. Fear at their reactions, at the pity that she knew would be on their faces, the anger at her involuntary lies.

But she only saw gentle smiles. Hunk and Lance were standing nearby, their encouraging grins making her heart flutter. Shiro sat next to her, holding her hand and rubbing soothing circles into her back. Allura looked positively elated at finding another of her kind, and was biting back excited squeals. Coran was in the back, trying to hide the joyful sobs that were wracking his frame. And Keith was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, face soft, eyes gentle and warm as he smirked at her.

“Well, I guess that's one way to find out I'm adopted.”

Hunk burst into laughter, and Shiro shook his head exasperatedly. “Welcome to the team, princess!” Lance bowed before her, kissing her hand.

“Pretty sure not all Alteans are royalty, Lance.”

“You might be, though,” Allura told her. “We could look into our records- see if we can locate any of your relatives!”

“How did this all happen?” Keith was the one to ask the question. “How did an Altean kid end up on Earth?”

Coran, sniffling and wiping away his tears, answered the question. “Back when the Galra were attacking- as the Princess and I entered the cryogenic freezing pods- there was another attempt to clear out the castle.”

“Escape pods,” Shiro said, to which Coran nodded.

“Yes. According to our ship's records, all of the pods went offline upon coming in contact with an asteroid and star belt.”

“But one of the pods could have made it,” Hunk theorized. “They were cryo-pods, too, right? What if little baby Pidge was put in a pod and managed to avoid the debris? What if she crash-landed on Earth?!”

“Wow, cool origin story, Super-Pidge.”

“Shut it, Lance.” His words had worked as intended though, as Pidge couldn't help but smile.

“We can double-check the records,” Allura said. “I had thought that all of the pods were decimated, but there were so many that it's possible one made it out unscathed. The Castle was malfunctioning under the attack, so it may be that the radars were on the fritz and lost the signal of a pod. Especially if it were small enough to house only a mere infant.”

“Can we check?” Pidge was vibrating now. “Can we check now? Please, Allura, can we-”

“Of course,” the princess smiled as she kissed Pidge's cheek, right below the Altean birthmarks. “Let's hop to it, shall we?”

Pidge did just that, literally hopping off the medical table to come to stand in front of her team.

In her excitement, she had forgotten about the pain in her back and the throbbing of her head. Stumbling, the girl gasped and fell to her knees. “ _Pidge_!” It was Keith who caught her, the red paladin having darted across the room before Pidge's feet even touched the ground, as though he could _sense_ something was physically wrong with her.

“Ugn...” the green paladin groaned as stars appeared in her eyes. Her stomach churned, her mouth growing wet, and she stammered, “K-Keith, you'd better get back- I think I'm going to-”

The last thing she remembered was vomiting all over the boy's red jacket before she passed out.

 

…

 

After waking up for a _second_ time, and hell if Lance wasn't going to give her grief for fainting _twice_ later, Pidge found herself in the common room. Someone had carried her there and deposited her on the couch, wrapping her up in a blanket like a burrito. Pidge was surprised to find that her head was in Keith's lap. Her feet were laying across Lance's lanky legs, and her body was _aching_.

“Mnnngh,” she groaned, trying to sit up and getting caught in the twist of blankets that surrounded her. It was hot, way too hot, and there was sweat in places sweat shouldn't be.

And apparently she had said that aloud, because Keith and Lance were unwrapping her, and Shiro was handing her a pouch of water. Someone scratched her scalp affectionately, and Pidge leaned into the touch. Allura appeared before her, crouching to look eye-to-eye with the girl.

“Are you feeling better, Pidge? Coran and I gave you an herbal injection that should help with the dizziness.”

“Is this some sort of weird Altean space-sickness? Am I dying? Cause it'd be _really_ uncool to find out I'm a badass shapeshifter and then die right after.”

“ _Language_ , Pidge.”

“No,” Allura chuckled. “You are not dying. You are going through puberty.”

“ _Puberty_?!” Pidge screeched. Lance let out a belt of laughter, and the green paladin gave him a firm kick to the ribs. “What do you mean I'm going through puberty?!”

“I mean who are transforming into a woman, Pidge!”

“Ah-ba-ba-bup!” Hunk put his hands over his hears. “Don't wanna hear this talk.”

Allura frowned. “Well why not? I have studied human anatomy since you all came to space. And Altean puberty is much different from human puberty, as far as my research has shown.”

“So, am I going to get a period or...?”

“ _Pidge_!” Hunk exclaimed. It was surprisingly Lance who jutted his elbow into the yellow paladin's ribs.

“Dude, chill. It's not a big deal. It's just the uterus shedding unnecessary tissues. Painful as hell, but just a biological thing.” At the expressions of his teammates, Lance huffed. “I _do_ have two older sisters, you know.”

“I've read about this _period_ ,” Allura said, “and I have to say that I haven't heard of any sort of Altean equivalent.”

“Oh thank _God_. I don't even know where I'd get tampons in space!”

“ _Pidge_ ,” Shiro groaned, rubbing his temples.“Allura, what exactly does Altean puberty pertain?”

“Oh, it's dreadful,” Allura said with not a hint of humor. “Aches and pains all over the body, fevers and nausea, blue boils popping out over the skin-”

“Space acne?!” And then Lance was laughing again, and Pidge really wished she had her bayard so she could shock the living daylights out of him.

“I suppose?” Allura more asked than confirmed. “The aches and pains come from your muscles trying to connect with your brain and figure out how to shape-shift,” she addressed Pidge directly. “It is common for Altean teenagers to be unable to control their shifting. The nausea and fevers come from your immune system trying to develop defensive cells against adult Altean illnesses, such as Kokonisis, the Slipperies, Quixggles-”

“ _Great_ ,” Pidge groaned, slapping a hand over her face. “So I'm gonna be shapeshifting against my will and fainting left and right for _how long_ exactly?”

“Oh, Altean puberty is much shorter than human,” Allura assured her. “About the equivalent of two Earth weeks.”

“Oh thank _God_.” Pidge collapsed back against the couch, pressing the cold water packet in her hands against her overheated forehead.

“You won't be able to operate the green lion while you're in this state,” Shiro told her (more like commanded, despite how gentle he tried to make it sound). “Bedrest and lots of fluids, alright?”

“Not sure puberty can be treated like a cold, Shiro.”

He shrugged. “We might as well try to make you comfortable.”

 

…

 

Over the next two weeks, Pidge was prone to long nights of insomnia, explosive bouts of anger, feverish states of craze, and- _yes_ \- space acne. One day while she was raiding the kitchen for food, she found that Lance had taken the last bit of some strange pudding-like dessert Hunk had whipped up, and she chased him around the Castle with her bayard until her muscles ached too much for her to continue. More than once, Shiro had found her sobbing in her bedroom over various things ranging from a broken nail to night terrors about her father and brother. Hunk was the one who dragged her away from the others when she got frustrated to the point of tears, sitting her down in front of robot parts and her laptop until she was lost to the numbers on the screen. Lance, when he wasn't teasing her and getting electrocuted by her bayard, drew her hot baths for her aching muscles and loaned her some of the facial masks he used at night. They did little to cure her boils, but the action itself made her feel warm inside. Five days into her 'Yipper Cycle', as Coran and Allura informed her it was called, Pidge threw Shiro across the room.

It hadn't been on purpose, and she had ran over to him and helped him out of the dent in the wall his body had created. Beside a few bruises and a minor concussion, the black paladin was fine. He had accidentally sneaked up on her late at night when she was raiding the kitchen for food. Apparently heightened appetite was another symptom of 'the Yippers' (as Lance and Hunk called it), or at least it was when her body wasn't wracked with a horrible nausea. Shiro had touched her shoulder, and she _freaked out_ , heightened emotions making terror spike through her body. Heedlessly, she flipped him over her shoulder and flung him across the room. It was a miracle he hadn't needed any time in the healing pods, but Pidge still felt immensely guilty. She had spent the rest of the day locked up in her room.

The next morning, Keith had hacked into the lock on her door and was dragging her to the training room. Despite Shiro's protests of Pidge needing bedrest, Keith insisted that Pidge needed to learn to control her new-found strength, and Pidge was inclined to agree with him.

Around ten days in, the shapeshifting started.

It was _horrible_.

Pidge's skin literally _crawled_ along her body, stretching and pulling as her muscles flexed and morphed beneath her flesh. Body shifting between colors, heights, and weights, every shift brought with it a kind of agony she couldn't express. Nighttime was the worst, her shifting not stopping for even a moment as she tried in vain to rest. Exhausted, wracked with pain, and crying ugly, snotty tears, Pidge found herself in front of Shiro's door with a pillow clasped to her chest, skin stuck between an ugly shade of yellow and a neon tone of purple. Shiro dragged her inside and sat on the mattress next to her as she sobbed, curling in on herself. Her strangled cries filtered out into the hallways, drawing the attention of the other paladins. A sleepover ensued. Hunk pressed up against her back as Lance crooned to her lowly and stroked her white tufts of hair. Hunk's soft body was incredibly warm, like a heated pillow, and even through her sweaty fits Pidge found it comforting. Keith massaged her feet as they grew and shrunk, and Coran whipped up another herbal injection that would dull the pain.

It was Allura who helped with her mental fatigue. The princess would take baths with her- a common Altean practice between family members, Pidge was assured- and washed Pidge's hair as she regaled the young woman with Altean nursery rhymes and stories. Pidge's favorite was one about a tiny gnome-like creature who befriended giants and adventured through the thick forests of their fairytale world.

Upon reaching exactly fourteen days, Pidge awoke feeling better than she had felt her entire life. The change was instantaneous, her fever gone and the aches in her bones replaced with a softer kind of warmth. She felt physically stronger, and teasingly bench-pressed Shiro during their training session that day. Shapeshifting now under control, Pidge fought with herself over whether or not she wanted to revert to her human form or not. She still had so many questions about herself- her body, her people and their history- but it all felt weird. Not _wrong_ , per say, but _weird_. She wanted to look like her family- wanted her mother's eyes, her brother's and father's freckles, the gangly limbs that she and Matt had never seemed to be able to grow out of. She wanted to look like them, because what if when she found them, they didn't recognize her? What if they were _afraid_ of her?

So some days she shifted to look human, and on those days Allura and Coran would stare at her with longing when they thought she wasn't paying attention. On other days, she couldn't be bothered to keep the facade up, and instead would allow her white hair and green birthmarks to go on display.

About three days after her Yipper Cycle ended, Pidge was approached by Allura.

“I managed to pull some records,” the princess began slowly, holding a holo-tablet in her hands. “There was in fact a pod that escaped unscathed. It lost contact with the Castleship, but when it landed, it sent out a honing signal that the ship managed to pick up. I do not know how, because the Castle was in such a disarray, but it did. And I found footage of- of your birth parents, placing you in the pod. There were no other pods left after you were boarded... They couldn't escape themselves... I'm so sorry, Pidge.”

“You-” Pidge stopped for a moment to get her voice steady, “-you said there were- were records, right? Did you... Did you manage to find out who my parents were?”

Allura fidgeted, brushing a loose strand of hair behind her ear. “Well, yes... I found the identities of your parents. Would you... like to see them?”

Her family was the Holts. Her family and her home was with them, on Earth... But Pidge was just as inquisitive as a young lady as she had been as an infant. The curiosity was killing her, and it felt as though her body was having a genuine biological craving to snatch up the information on her family.

“Yes,” she croaked out, and Allura handed the tablet over to her.

Her father was shorter than she imagined for an Altean man, but his shoulders were broad and his chin was sharply cut. His eyes had the same honey-gold color that hers did, his nose turned up at the end like her's. His green birthmarks weren't the small chip-like shapes that Pidge had, but were instead long lines that trailed from his temple down his cheeks to his chin. Her mother was even shorter, thin and narrow like Pidge. The woman's hair was short and white, bouncing above her shoulders in an unmanageable tangle that stared back at Pidge every time she looked in the mirror. Her markings were small like Pidge's, but pink like Allura's. The woman's skin took on the same stark paleness of her daughter's, contrasting against her husband's own dark mocha color.

In their arms rested a red-faced newborn, tiny green dots on her cheeks and a bright patch of white hair on the top of her head.

Pidge couldn't help the sobs that wracked her frame when she dropped the tablet. She burrowed her face Allura's chest as the princess held her close, singing Altean lullabies under her breath to soothe Pidge. That was how Coran found them, standing in the middle of the hallway enveloped in each others arms. He joined in the embrace, kissing both of the girls' cheeks before escorting them to the kitchen and setting about fixing up something warm to drink.

Pidge didn't want to know their names. Not now. Their faces were enough for her, the picture of the happy family burning in her mind. It didn't change anything of course. The Holts were still her family and she still loved them with an unmatchable passion. It didn't change the fact that she would _never_ stop looking for her father and brother, would _never_ stop fighting to return to her mother and their little white-picket house on the outskirts of New Mexico. But seeing her birth parents, the people who had saved her life and sent her to travel in stasis for ten thousand years, she felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude. If not for her birth parents, she never would have found the Holts, never would have been rescued by Samuel and Colleen and drawn into their tight-knit family. And if not for the Holts, she never would have met the newest editions to her family. Shiro, Lance, Hunk, Keith, Allura, Coran. Even the space mice were there for her on cold nights, cuddling up to her neck and filling her with fondness.

She owed her birth parents _everything_ , and she knew just how to repay them.

“We're gonna kick Zarkon's ass,” Pidge announced to the room one day, seemingly out of the blue. The boys had shot her glances, Coran and Allura smiling at her. Even Shiro had forgone chiding her for her language, instead playfully tugging on her pointy ears. She slapped away his hand and he laughed.

“We sure are, Pidge,” he told her. “We sure are.”

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> ** So another thing on the whole baby-Altean-chameleon-effect thing... The reason Pidge's 'chameleon' effect stayed with her past infancy and through her adolescence is because she was surrounded by humans. It was the combined effort of puberty AND being around Allura and Coran for so long that caused her to revert to her Altean form!! :)
> 
> I hope you guys liked it!! If you're interested, I was thinking about making a sequel to where Altean!Pidge finds out about Galra!Keith and angsty fluff ensues... Sound like a good idea? Please let me know!!
> 
> Thank you so much for reading, and thanks again to jakehercy's lovely art for inspiring me!!!
> 
> CHECK OUT HIS ART HERE:   
> http://jakehercydraws.tumblr.com/


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